Thursday, February 03, 2005

Why are we here?

What purpose to historians serve?

I mean apart from teaching history, which is a complicated and necessary task in itself, and involves various tasks. Entertaining. Passing on some kind of cultural legacy. Legitimizing certain forms of thought and expression. Ranking students on the basis of these forms of thinking.

But what good does the historian as researcher and writer serve? Is this an entirely selfish endeavor, whose only point is to allow us to surround oneself with the things in human history that we think are cool? A form of self-expression, the presumptuous presentation of one's own worldview as the truth?

About Me

I'm writing a dissertation about French fascist movie reception in the 1930's. I was hit head on by a car while bicycling on March 8, and had my pelvis broken. One of these things is taking precedence over the other at the moment.